thing up off Butch's lap and did a quick a
maintenance scan. «Dead.»
«Should have known. Safe Place is in a cluster fuck of IT shit. Their server's down. Now this.
Meanwhile Marissa's up at the mansion with Mary trying to figure out how to hire more staff.
Man, she doesn't need this.»
«I put four new Dells in the supply cabinet outside Wrath's study. Tell her to go get one, true? I'd
set it up for her now, but I gotta go.»
«Thanks, man. And yeah, I'll get ready to come with you-«
«You don't have to be there.»
Butch frowned. «Fuck that. You need me.»
«Someone else can stand in.»
«I'm not abandoning you-«
«Wouldn't be abandonment.» Vishous wandered over to the foosball table and spun one of the
rods. As the row of little men did backflips, he exhaled. «It's kind of like… I don't know, if
you're there, it's all too fucking real.»
«So you want somebody else to back you?»
V spun the rod again, a whirring noise rising up from the table. He'd chosen Butch on a knee-
jerk, but the truth was, the male was a complication. V was so damned close to the guy it was
going to be harder to front his way through the presentation and the ritual.
V looked across the living room. «Yeah. Yeah, I think I want someone else.»
In the short silence that followed, Butch assumed the look of someone holding a plate of food
that was too hot: uneasy and insecure. «Well… as long as you know I would be there for you, no
matter what was doing.»
«I know you're solid.» V went to the phone, thinking over his choices.
«Are you su-«
«Yes,» he said, dialing. When Phury answered his call, V said, «You mind standing in with me
today? Butch is going to hang back. Yeah. Uh-huh. Thanks, man.» He hung up. It might be an
odd choice, because the two of them had never been particularly close. But then, that was the
point. «Phury's going to do it, no problem. I'm going to bounce to his room now.»
«V-«
«Shut it, cop. I'll be back in a couple hours.»
«I wish like hell you didn't have to-«
«Whatever. This isn't going to change things.» After all, Jane would still be gone; he would still
be a bonded male without his mate. So yup, yup, nothing different, nothing mattered.
«You're absolutely positive you don't want me to go?»
«Just be here with the Goose when I get back. I'm going to need a drink.»
V left the Pit through the underground tunnel, and as he walked over to the mansion, he tried to
give himself some perspective.
This Chosen he was mating was just a body. Same as he was. The two of them were going to do
what needed to be done, when it was necessary. It was just male parts meeting female parts, then
thrust and repeat until the male ejaculated. And as for his complete and utter lack of arousal? Not
a problem. The Chosen had salves to ensure an erection and incense that made you come. So
even though he had absolutely no interest in sex, his body would do what it was born and bred to
do: ensure that the best lines in the species survived.
Shit, he wished it could be clinical, all cup-and-baster. But vampires had tried IVF in the past, to
no success. Young had to be conceived the good old-fashioned way.
Man, he did not want to think of how many females he was going to have to be with. He just
couldn't go there. If he did, he was going to-
Vishous stopped in the middle of the tunnel.
Opened his mouth.
And screamed until his voice gave out.
Chapter Thirty-four
When Vishous and Phury crossed over to the other side together, they took form in a white
courtyard surrounded by a white arcade of Corinthian columns. In the center was a white marble
fountain that splashed crystal clear water into a deep white cistern. In the far corner, on a white
tree with white blossoms, a flock of rainbow-colored songbirds was gathered as if they'd been
sprinkled on top of a cupcake. The sweet calls of the finches and the chickadees harmonized with
the chiming sound of the fountain, as if both cadences were in the same key of joy.
«Warriors.» The Scribe Virgin's voice came from behind V and made his skin pull like plastic
over his bones. «Kneel and I shall greet you.»
V ordered his knees to bend, and after a moment they hinged like rusty legs on a card table.
Phury, on the other hand, didn't seem to be suffering from a case of the stiffs and went down
smoothly.
Then again, he wasn't hitting the floor in front of
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